Steve Jobs (2015) Review

Review by Brandon Fu
Directed by Danny Boyle
Rated: R (for language)

Steve Jobs(Boyle, 2015) tells the story of none of other than...Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc., and the genius behind revolutionary consumer electronics. Of course, this movie has been attempted before in the form of Jobs(Whiteley, 2013), which was absolutely horrible with Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs(I get shudders just thinking about it). Unlike most biopics, this movie actually tells the story of: Why? Why is Steve Jobs so impressive? Why is he hailed as a genius? Why is he so controversial? It's quite refreshing to see this.

STORY:

This is not your average biopic. It was three arcs, like most movies, but it isn't really a telling of his life. It's more like the behind the scenes and dialogue that happens before three extremely important product reveals. We see his interactions with people like his "daughter", Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, and Joanna Hoffman before those reveals.

I liked the scenes in which he is actually interacting with those people, because with most Aaron Sorkin written movies, the dialogue is snappy and in the center of everything. The entire movie is essentially dialogue, and it actually works, unlike most movies. If a movie with only dialogue actually works, then it's great. If it doesn't, the film tends to suck. Good thing Aaron Sorkin was there, with The West Wing and movies like The Social Network(Fincher, 2010) under his belt.

A particular interaction Steve has with those people listed above that I enjoyed was with his "daughter". The girl is actually his, but he is just super in denial about it, and we see him slowly wise up to the fact that this girl is actually his daughter. It gave for some really heartfelt scenes.

As for the writing and story itself, I felt like I wanted more. The movie only shows the period before the three product reveals, and we never get to see Steve Jobs talk to the audience or actually give a presentation. I would have wanted to see that. I also would have wanted to see more of the "starting in a garage" scenes, with more of his origin. However, we only get tiny flashbacks to the times he had with Steve Wozniak and John Sculley developing Apple. I wouldn't have minded having a longer run time to fit in more flashbacks or make those flashbacks longer.

ACTING:
Everybody in this movie kills it. Michael Fassbender is A MILLION TIMES better than Ashton Kutcher, and actually pulls off an American accent quite consistently throughout the movie. Everybody is top notch, including people you wouldn't expect, like Seth Rogan as Steve Wozniak. I bought him as a dopey, socially awkward guy, who just wants some recognition. There were very tiny points in the movie where there was overacting by Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, but it wasn't anything major enough to take away from the movie.

VERDICT:

Overall, Steve Jobs is obviously the better of the two Steve Jobs biopics. It is expertly written, with fast, snappy dialogue, as well as tense moments brought about by expert directing. Its actors and actresses were top notch, but despite that, the movie wasted potential screen time that could have been put towards the origins of Steve Jobs. Still a great movie, and one definitely worth watching.

7.5/10

The Martian (2015) Review

Review by Brandon Fu
Directed by Ridley Scott
Rated: PG-13 for some strong language, injury images, and brief nudity

The Martian(Scott, 2015), is this year's Interstellar, with fantastic visuals and a return to form from a slipping Ridley Scott. Since his last movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings(Scott, 2014), Scott has improved practically everything about this movie. Unlike Interstellar, The Martian is actually funny, and serious at the same time. One of the best movies of the year so far.

The Martian tells the story of Mark Watney(Matt Damon), a stranded astronaut on Mars who has to communicate with NASA and face some personal problems in order to triumph and return to Earth. After his crew leaves Mars after a huge sandstorm and Watney is presumed dead, he uses his knowledge as a scientist in order to survive until rescue comes after him.

There is both a Mars part of the movie, with Mark Watney as the focus, and there is also an earth part, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels and their interactions with NASA and JPL in order to get him back. I would have wanted less of the earth scenes, as it would have made Mark Watney's story more impressive, and much more interesting to watch.

Something that is quite obvious about this movie is that the cast is absolutely awesome. With people like Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, etc., it is obvious that a movie with this caliber of stars would be incredible, and it is. Matt Damon is plays the part of a stranded person to the tee. A lot of the scenes that could have been extremely serious are brightened with the humor of the movie. However, this relaxed nature of Mark Watney means that there are almost no scenes in which we see him break down and actually realize his loneliness. There are scenes like that, however, it should have had more of an emotional triumph instead of a physical one.

Unlike most of the cast, there is one person who is a sore thumb that sticks out: Donald Glover(AKA Childish Gambino). Due to his lack of acting experience, I can't buy him as a JPL nerd who spends all day writing code and solving equations. If there were scenes that show his prowess as a mathematician, then I would have bought it. Instead, we are just given Donald Glover a weird introduction and a scene in which he explains his thoughts through models of spaceships. It is not that big of a deal, but purely basing off of his previous performances and hip hop background.

Another aspect of the movie that I really enjoyed was the science aspect, and how everything was able to be explained to the audience. It made sense, and it was fun to see Watney solve his problems through science.

Visually, this movie is stunning. It gives a huge amount of scale, and you really do feel as if you are alone on a planet. When most people think of Mars, they think of huge, vast, red land with no physical interest. However, this movie has a lot of jagged mountains, with huge hills and dunes. Though not as visually impressive as Interstellar, still impressive none the less.

To put it quite simply, The Martian is a great movie and return to form for Ridley Scott. It's funny, moving, realistic, and fun to watch. Though without its mishaps, this film is definitely worth watching.

8/10